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Tennessee Firefighters Let Home Burn Over Subscription Issue
JASON HIBBS
WPSD
Reprinted with Permission
OBION COUNTY, Tenn. - Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won't respond, then watches it burn. That's exactly what happened to a local family tonight.
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- MSNBC: No pay, no spray: Firefighters let home burn
FireEMSBlogs.com Updates
A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.
The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning.
Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks did not pay.
The mayor said if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck.
This fire went on for hours because garden hoses just wouldn't put it out. It wasn't until that fire spread to a neighbor's property, that anyone would respond.
Turns out, the neighbor had paid the fee.
"I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong," said Gene Cranick.
Because of that, not much is left of Cranick's house.
They called 911 several times, and initially the South Fulton Fire Department would not come.
The Cranicks told 9-1-1 they would pay firefighters, whatever the cost, to stop the fire before it spread to their house.
"When I called I told them that. My grandson had already called there and he thought that when I got here I could get something done, I couldn't," Paulette Cranick.
It was only when a neighbor's field caught fire, a neighbor who had paid the county fire service fee, that the department responded. Gene Cranick asked the fire chief to make an exception and save his home, the chief wouldn't.
We asked him why.
He wouldn't talk to us and called police to have us escorted off the property. Police never came but firefighters quickly left the scene. Meanwhile, the Cranick home continued to burn.
We asked the mayor of South Fulton if the chief could have made an exception.
"Anybody that's not in the city of South Fulton, it's a service we offer, either they accept it or they don't," Mayor David Crocker said.
Friends and neighbors said it's a cruel and dangerous city policy but the Cranicks don't blame the firefighters themselves. They blame the people in charge.
"They're doing their job," Paulette Cranick said of the firefighters. "They're doing what they are told to do. It's not their fault."
To give you an idea of just how intense the feelings got in this situation, soon after the fire department returned to the station, the Obion County Sheriff's Department said someone went there and assaulted one of the firefighters.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Henderson on
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Like I said, in texas, you pay taxes to pay for Fire and EMS. One way or another, Fire and EMS are government services which cost money to provide. The people in this town chose not to pay taxes for fire protection, and they got exactly what they paid for. It's a terrible situation and I don't like it any more than I imagine anyone on here who supports the decision or who opposes it, but the fact here is that the taxpayers in that town and the specific homeowner in question made a consicious decision to turn down fire protection services, knowing full well that they might some day need them.
I personally feel that fire protection should be a standard, tax-based service in all jurisdictions, but these particular taxpayers didn't feel that fire protection was worth the cost. For whatever reason, they thought it could never happen to them. But it did. And they got exactly what they paid for.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Daniel,
Your arrogance is matched only by your lack of understanding.
The system in Obion County works just fine. One idiot intentionally gambled on trying to save himself $75 and lost.
Your arrogance in demanding that everyone else do it just like your state is astounding, it's unwarranted, and it's appallingly ignorant.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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Sam - I agree. That said, we're starting into bushfire season down under, and we'll need you and a crew of trained bush firefighters to come to NSW and help us out for the season. You'll need to arrange your own transport, equipment, training, insurance, and PPE, but if you don't support your fellow brothers and your "unspoken oath to protect property and lives" than you need to hang up your gear and find another line of work, as we don't need any "sell outs" in this industry.
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YOU HAVE SUBSCRIPTION HEALTHCARE NOW! what do you think insurance is?
I'm yelling so you can hear me over the cognitive dissonance.
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and $75 times les than 10,000 is still only at most $750,000, and yet they provide service to those who choose to pay.
They wouldn't necessarily provide their own department for $50 a year, but they did offer a $50 mandatory tax which would have provided the same level of service provided by the subscription to all tax payers. Hence, the tax is cheaper than the subscription.
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What you are missing, Eric, is that the $750,000 is additional funding going to an existing fire department. They don't have capital costs for new stations and station furnishings.
Their capital costs for new turnout gear, new SCBAs, new tools, etc. are much less. They don't have to train many new firefighters from scratch - which has additional costs. They don't have to pay for additional firefighter physicals and respirator fit testing.
When you say "...provided the same leel os service provided by the subscription..." you're making a false assumption. There's no way that Obion County can start up a new fire department for less money when South Fulton is already struggling when they have an established department and $250,000 more per year than the county would have.
What you advocate would clearly reduce services to the county, not improve them.
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Why should everyone have to do it YOUR way, Eric?
Don't you think that's pretty arrogant?
It's not safe to assume that everyone else can afford to do it your way.
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Jack didn't elaborate, but I will. The FD was paid for by the local town. This house was not in the town, but in the surrounding county that does not pay town taxes, and therefore did not pay for the trucks, building, or even the damn pens in their office.
Do your homework or we'll make you stay after class next time.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Genelly III on
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Does ANYBODY even realize that this department has made EXCEPTIONS before, and extinguished fires, and allowed for the resident to PAY afterward? Does anyone realize that not just homes were damaged, but animals were lost? Do those of us who work for municipal departments keep a record of Tax Scofflaws, making sure NOT to respond to extinguish a fire in their home becasue they didn't pay their taxes?
Were is the MORAL outrage? Someone calls 911, asks for help, says look....I'LL PAY WHATEVER...BUT YOU SAY......No....SORRY.....Too Late...its what they DESERVE!!! The neighbor who paid asked the Firefighters to use the water HE Paid for, and instead of putting it on his freshly harvested corn filed, to put it on his neighbors house....They said NO.
Lots of folks posting facts here..LOL.........but I hauled a lot of people to the hospital in our Tax Funded Fire Department Rescue, when they Didn't have insurance. We didn't get paid, and I knew we wouldn't...........but they still needed help.
This is a SAD day for the Fire Service, no matter how you slice it. And those of you espousing the cautionary tale of woe, and that these folks got what they deserve....I've got a name for you...Politicians.
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Nicely done. LMAO
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who ever said anything about them providing their own department? Why would they, if they have a perfectly reasonable agreement with the city to provide sufficient services for $50 from each property?
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wait, wait, wait...we can get capes with this? sweet.
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